Bernhard Langer to receive PGA TOUR’s 2018 Payne Stewart Award

Bernhard Langer was named the recipient of the 2018 Payne Stewart Award, the PGA TOUR announced Monday.

The annual award is given by the PGA TOUR to the professional golfer that embodies Wold GOld Hall of Fame member Payne Stewart’s values of character, sportsmanship, professionalism and charity.

“We all are so proud of Payne Stewart and the husband and father he was, the player he was and the character he had,” Langer said in his official statement. “I was very close with Payne for a number of years. Toward the end of his career, he became a believer in Jesus Christ and a Christian, and that was very touching to me because the same thing happened to me a few years earlier, so we had even more in common at that point. To now be receiving the Payne Stewart Award, I feel extremely honored. I know there are many, many other guys that deserve it as much if not more than me, and I’m thrilled to receive it.”